2007

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There was a full house for the Emma Kirkby concert on 1^st June

The 2007 Tilford Bach Festival was another outstanding series of events. Four quite different concerts performed by musicians of the highest order, of international standing.

In addition to the four professional concerts, there was another music workshop for local singers, under the direction of Laurence Cummings, culminating in a Choral Evensong in All Saints Church on 26th May assisted by The Oboe Band who added greatly to the effectiveness of the music. It is a pity that this event does not attract a greater number of singers.

Here are reports of the four main concerts.

The Tilford Bach Society has always offered a platform to encourage talented young musicians, so the now traditional appearance of the Royal Academy of Music Baroque Orchestra at the first night of the Tilford Bach Festival is a great pleasure. The RAM trains some of the finest students from around the world so we could be listening to an Emma Kirkby of the future. And, sure enough, the soprano soloist, Anna Huntley, might just be such a person. She has the most appealing voice with tone and breath control that promises well for her future. In the first half she sang an aria from Handel’s Giulio Cesare, which tells a gruesome story of decapitation and revenge. She brought the concert to a fitting end with two arias by J.S.Bach; one that mourns the death of the Queen of Poland and then Saget, saget (Tell me where I may find Jesus), from Bach’s Easter Oratorio.

Rachel Baldock is a doctoral student at the RAM and she demonstrated fine musicianship and skill playing a Bach Sonata for Oboe and Harpsichord, and Scarlatti’s Concerto for Recorder.

And in between the solos the orchestra introduced us to the music of Heinrich Biber with several movements from his Mensa Sonora, literally music to be played by a group of friends sitting around a table. Our thanks to Laurence Cummings and his students for allowing us to join with them in this charming chamber experience.

Pete Wisbey

A delightful bonus for this year’s festival was a recital by Rachel Brown and Adrian Butterfield. It takes great musicianship to hold an audience spellbound for an entire evening with just two solo unaccompanied instruments, but these two internationally renowned artists certainly accomplished this.

Rachel Brown played Teleman’s Twelve Fantasies for Solo Flute, designed to demonstrate the possibilities of an instrument very different from its modern equivalent. Rachel’s flute is a specially made replica of an early 18th century German instrument found in Durham Cathedral. Made of grenadine wood with bands of ivory it has just one metal key. On this baroque instrument every key has its own characteristic mood, many of which were explored by the composer in movements ranging from bubbling energetic dances to lyrical and contemplative pieces. Hearing the instrument unaccompanied enabled the audience to appreciate fully the beautiful tone of this instrument and its extraordinary expressive qualities in the hands of such an outstanding musician.

Adrian Butterfield played violin works by Biber and Bach on a baroque instrument. Biber’s Passagalia for Solo Violin is a series of variations based on four descending notes, becoming increasingly elaborate and technically demanding, reflecting the fact that the composer was himself an accomplished violinist. However, the Partita No.2 in D minor by J.S. Bach took us to a different level and formed a fitting climax to the evening. Written when the composer was grieving over the death of his first wife, this is a work of passion and great beauty, performed by Adrian with great sensitivity and breathtaking technique.

Rosemary Wisbey

Audience expectations at a concert that sells out three weeks before the date are going to be very high. All Saints’ Church, Tilford was packed on 1st June and there was a great buzz amongst an audience of music-lovers, many of whom had travelled a considerable distance.

Although the Tilford Bach Festival always attracts big audiences, an added attraction this year was the presence, for the second time, of Emma Kirkby, one of the world’s greatest sopranos, considered to be at her very best singing baroque music. With the London Handel Players and Rachel Brown, the internationally acclaimed flutist, the concert promised to be a memorable musical event for everyone. No one was disappointed – everyone was captivated! And this included the man who founded the festival in 1953, Denys Darlow.

Emma Kirkby has one of the purest voices we will ever hear, perfectly suited for baroque and early music. Rachel Brown is a baroque flutist with great versatility. The programme, assembled by Adrian Butterfield, one of the TBS music directors, was cleverly conceived to display all these talents.

The opening item was Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in F minor BWV 1056, with the TBS’s other music director Laurence Cummings delivering an outstanding performance at the keyboard.

Two pieces on the theme of birds followed, featuring the duo of Emma Kirkby and Rachel Brown supported by the orchestra. Handel’s “Sweet Bird” from L’Allegro uses poetry by Milton and has the soprano singing the words with the flute responding as a nightingale. The second piece from Handel’s opera Ricardo Primo (Richard the First of England) had Rachel Brown playing the sopranino recorder to represent a bird, both pieces exquisitely performed.

The first part of the concert concluded with Bach’s Concerto for Three Violins BWV 1064, re-created by Oliver Webber (who was playing the second violin part) from a harpsichord version of the piece, the original having been lost. In addition to the interaction between the three violins, a highlight of this piece was a virtuoso harpsichord section in the third movement delivered with great ease by Laurence Cummings.

The second half of the evening maintained the momentum of the first with a performance of Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits and a Vivaldi Violin Concerto. The final item was the Bach Cantata Non sa che sia dolore BWV209, sung with perfection by Emma Kirkby to the delight of the audience.

Thunderous applause required an encore and the audience was therefore treated to the performance of a piece by John Christopher Smith that is in the course of being revived. This brought Rachel Brown together again with Emma Kirkby for the combination of pure sounds which represent the enduring memory of a musically historic event for this fortunate audience.

Ian Sargeant

To listen to Bach’s glorious Mass in B minor is always a moving experience, but in a packed village church it is overwhelming. The London Handel Orchestra was augmented by rousing baroque trumpets, horn and timpani under the inspirational direction of Laurence Cummings. To see him simultaneously conducting and playing continuo standing at the portative organ is an experience in itself.

Pegasus Chamber Choir made a welcome return visit after their triumphant performance of the Nelson Mass two years ago. Once more this London-based choir impressed by their precision, power and sensitivity in the dramatic switches of mood this Mass demands. When they burst into the Gloria in excelsis Deo it was as if the church roof had opened to admit the sound of the heavenly host itself.

The soloists were Ana-Maria Rincon (soprano), Alexandra Gibson (contralto), Daniel Auchincloss (tenor) and George Humphries (bass). Each vocal aria is really a duet with its accompanying instrument, the beautiful voices exquisitely complemented by the distinctive timbre of baroque oboe, flute, violin or cello. It is difficult to select particular moments from such a uniformly inspiring performance, but the switch from the exuberant chorus Osanna in excelsis to the heart-rending alto aria, Agnus Dei (Lamb of God, have mercy upon us) was especially moving. After the closing chorus, Dona nobis pacem (Grant us peace), there was a long moment of profound silence before rapturous applause burst from an audience that felt privileged to be part of such a great event.

Rosemary Wisbey

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